Victoria Richards decided to find a way to make a Covid Halloween more fun, at home.

Petworth local Victoria Richards loves Halloween, a passion she learned from her father. “He’s a Halloween fanatic,” she said, “who would decorate our family home with fake cobwebs, spiders and pumpkins every Halloween. Although my siblings and I have left home, he still goes overboard with the Halloween decorations and makes sure our house is one with "the good candy."

That passion for Halloween — and her sadness about how Covid is impacting celebrating the day — led the 27-year old to start her own Etsy business selling a “Trick or Treat Box” for kids.

“I feel so bummed that plans for Trick or Treat are up in the air this year because of the pandemic,” she said. Problem-solving is something that Victoria does daily at her job as a corrosion engineer for the federal government.

“When my family comes together for the holiday we are always playing card and board games, cracking up at each other's mistakes and competitiveness.”

So Victoria created the Trick or Treat Box, which aims to capture the fun and surprise of trick or treating.

There’s plenty of tricks AND treats inside.

“While The Trick or Treat Box will not completely solve the issue of the uncertainty of Trick or Treating in 2020, I wanted to give families an alternative or a supplement,” she said.

“When children knock on the door during Beggar's Night, are they going to get a pencil, sour patch kids or an apple from their neighbor? It's all a surprise, right? With The Trick or Treat Box, everyone participating in the activity will complete a challenge, the fun part, and get rewarded by opening a trick or treat compartment, the surprise part. Every box comes with activity instructions, activity cards, a thirty-second sand timer, pre-packaged candy (Treats) and Halloween Knick Knacks (Tricks). The instructions are easy to read and understand and there are activity cards for ages 2-4 and cards for ages 5 and up.”

You can pick up your own Trick or Treat Box from Victoria’s Etsy page.

She’s offering 10% for Petworth News readers with coupon code “Petworth2020”